


Gold Finder Heart (no refunds for malfunction)

by Imtoolazytodoanything



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: (death tag is him but to be fair we know that), Angst, Character Study, Comedy, Gen, minor appearances that I can't be bothered to tag, of sorts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-21 21:07:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30027858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imtoolazytodoanything/pseuds/Imtoolazytodoanything
Summary: Since his creation, Greed’s been chasing a high. He can feel it deep inside, the pulsing essence ofwant, want, want. It is simple, really. He knows what he wants. He wantseverything. And everything he will get, obviously.Greed goes through life taking everything he wants from it. Or so he thinks.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Gold Finder Heart (no refunds for malfunction)

The first thing he ever felt, before he even realized he existed or had a second to open his eyes, was this twitching _pull_ on his core. He _needed_ before he even realized he _was._

Greed had half listened to Father’s wordy explanation of his existence. The thing that seemed to be pulsing life into him was a philosopher stone, okay. The explanation had kept on going. Removing all the sins from within him this. Perfect Being that. Something about Truth. He couldn’t care less, as he could hardly hear him above the twitching need vibrating in his ears.

Besides, if daddy dearest had wanted him to do as he was told; maybe he should not have given all his self-fuelled desires to him. The logic didn’t check out.

As a homunculus, he has no need for food. However, he supposes hunger must be quite similar to the pull he has deep within him every time he sees a person with something that is theirs. It feels like a hole, worn deep within him. Its pulsating, overwhelming presence aching in his chest like a crude imitation of a heartbeat.

He would ask Gluttony, but he is rather insufferable to talk to, and talking to him means dealing with Lust. The less interaction with his siblings, the better.

And it feels so _good_ , owning stuff. Gold and riches and lackeys and everything he can get his hands on.

(The _want_ is never satisfied. He wonders if he would ever quell it)

* * *

He was making his way through a busy street downtown, thinking about getting yet another shiny car he had seen on a magazine. Humans were making model after model of them, each better than the last. Greed found it almost endearing, the way they put so much effort into one-upping each other.

He glanced at a café to his left, and promptly saw something strange happening on the table facing the window. There was a man, nerves making themselves known through his sweaty brow and shaky limbs. He was presenting a little box to the woman in front of him, who also had an eager glint to her demeanour, with her mouth half open and big eyes.

The dude’s eyes were watery as he opened the little box with clumsy fingers. Inside it, there was a plain golden ring. There must have been something else to the ring though, as the woman’s face split into a ridiculously wide grin, tears falling from his eyes. She started nodding frantically, taking the ring from the box and looking at it with wonder.

Greed hadn’t even realized he had stopped walking. The pull in his core was so loud he could hardly hear anything else. He _wanted_.

He hadn’t wanted this badly for a long time now, and that only peaked his curiosity further. What was that ring? Was it magic? Or just really expensive?

Either way, he was going to get one of those.

Now, he had no clue of what he was looking for exactly, besides the vague notion of _ring_ , _gold_ and _possibly magic_. It couldn’t be too rare or expensive, as the man’s clothes and demeanour didn’t really amount to much. So he decided to jewellery-shop hop his way into finding it.

He would know when he saw it. Probably.

Two prestigious jewellery stores, four golden necklaces, 5 diamond earrings and a cute glass display – because why the fuck not – later, he was revising his previous statement. He had seen plenty of similar ones, but none was particularly remarkable. Not _crying of happiness_ remarkable at least. Maybe it _was_ a rare item after all, and he should have just stolen it.

(Well, maybe not. They did look extremely happy about the stupid ring, and besides he didn’t want someone else’s ring, he wanted one all of his own. )

He was on the third store of the day, sitting cross-legged on the counter, a growing pile of golden little rings covering his lap. He was getting tired of this, it was late, and the chill that entered through the window he had smashed to get in was starting to annoy him.

A door opening followed by a high-pitched shriek almost made him drop the ring he was currently inspecting. He sighed, annoyed. What now?

He turned around. Appearing through a door that he now supposed connected to a house was a middle-aged woman, clad in only a faded old night robe and clutching a lamp as if it were a riffle. What the fuck?

“What-Wh- _How_ did you get in?!” Said the human, stumbling over her questions and landing on the most obvious one.

Wordlessly, he lifted a hand and signalled to the hole in the shop window. Come on, that one should have been easy enough to figure out.

“Take what you want, just please don’t hurt anyone…” The woman was begging now, expression scared and frantic.

“I’m not here for you.” Greed said, mostly because he didn’t know what the hell the lady was talking about. If he were here to kill them, they would be dead already.

The woman didn’t say anything, provably still processing what in her mind was most likely a fucked up turn of events. He was about to tell her to fuck off and let him search in peace when he realized something that may be useful.

“Hey,” He addressed her, making her flinch like she had forgotten he was a real entity sitting on her glass display “You are the owner, aren’t you?”

The woman just nodded, words seemingly stuck in her throat. Fair enough.

“So, I was looking for a ring.” He stated the obvious, seeing he had a lapful of them; but if he had learned anything from short interaction with this woman is that she was a bit slow on the intake.

“Oh.” The woman muttered, unhelpfully.

“I was looking for a very powerful one, probably.” He added, because unlike her he knew how to be helpful in conversation.

The woman seemed to go over something in her brain before a flash of understanding shined in her eyes.

“You are looking for…an engagement ring?” Her eyes were both narrowed and softer than they had been in any other point of their interaction, which confused him even more.

Going back to her question, _was he_ looking for an engagement ring? He honestly had no clue. Well, the woman looked like she knew what she was talking about, and besides, “engagement” sounded about right. Those two on the café had been definitely engaging in something.

Not wanting to look like an idiot who didn’t know what he was looking for, he answered confidently:

“Yeah, one of those.” He pointed a finger at her direction for confident emphasis.

Something about the turn of the events seemed to have relaxed the lady the tinniest bit, her stance gradually unyielding from the tense ready-to-run one she had at the beginning. Greed was glad for it, even if he had no idea what had happened to warrant it.

“If you’re really so desperate, we can find something cheap that your intended[1] might like.” She told him, tentatively getting closer to the glass display.

“Uh?” Greed answered intelligently.

Whatever the hell this ring was, he was _not_ giving it to someone else. Although, now that he thought about it, the man in the café did give it to someone else. That seemed to be the point of it. The thought bummed up his night a little bit, had he gone through all this work for something that wouldn’t even work on himself?

“Miria?!” A new, panicked voice joined their conversation, startling the woman and annoying Greed further.

Damn it, just when he was _getting somewhere_.

A middle-aged man wearing a maroon night robe anxiously made his way to the woman’s side, holding her forearm and placing himself between her and Greed.

“What are you doing here?” The man demanded. It was a better lead-up question than the woman’s, but Greed just happened to have already answered it.

He gestured to his lap, hoping the dozen rings in it could answer for him.

“He’s looking for an engagement ring.” The woman helped.

“I could pay for it if you want.” Greed added, hoping to move the conversation towards his goal again.

The woman – Miria? – looked at him incredulously.

“Then what was the point of _breaking into my store_?”

“Well, it was closed.” Duh.

Miria threw her hands up with a low groan, seemingly no longer terrified but annoyed. When she did so, Greed noticed something shinny in one of her fingers. More scrutiny led him to notice an identical one in the man’s hand.

“Is that –“ _Idiot, you said you knew what it was_. “That is. An engagement ring.” He corrected in a very fluid way, pointing at the woman’s hand.

“Yes?” The man answered even though he wasn’t asking him, unconsciously moving closer to his engaged.

The void in his chest squirmed. He willed it to shut up. He was _trying_ to feed it at the moment.

Something must have shown on his face, because Miria gave him a warm smile before saying:

“You must really love this person.”

Oh.

_Love_. Little word humans threw around a lot. Sometimes they used as a formality, another title to pass on to their kin or allies. On occasion, it was an excuse, a noble defence for their own selfishness. More often than not, it was just another word for greed, to identify something as yours. That one, Greed could understand.

Occasionally though, it meant something else. Something _more_ than just plain ownership. He recognized it instinctually in some couples lost in each other’s gazes, or in a mother singing her baby to sleep. Greed couldn’t quite put a finger on what it was, but it made something dark and hollow in his chest squirm.

He could see it on the couple in front of him too. It was in the gazes, the eyes always gave it up. They looked at each other like they…owned each other? Some sort of reciprocal owning. That was not it, ownership didn’t cut it, but Greed didn’t know what else to call it.

The want hit him in waves so strong that he had to physically stop himself from falling off the counter and landing on his ass. The hollow in his chest may as well be a physical thing by the way he could almost feeling clawing his insides open.

He gets off the display case, the rings scattering to the floor with small clattering noises that felt deafening to his ears. He can hardly care. There wasn’t a ring that could give him what he looked for.

The ring was just bragging rights for something you already had. And whatever it was, Greed didn’t have it.

“I’ve decided I don’t want a ring anymore.” Greed explained trying to keep the hoarseness out of his voice, “Good night.”

He darted out of the hole in the window and made a run for it before either human could react.

* * *

He finds his ultimate goal almost by accident, walking through a random town.

Ear-shattering screaming had been coming from one of the houses, making Greed cringe almost sympathetically. Whatever had gotten that person was doing a number on them.

“You’re doing amazing, come on you’re so close!” A muffled voice said from behind the walls of the house as he passed by. Greed stopped, suddenly curious of what the hell was going on in there.

Was there a fight going on? But that human’s voice was way too gentle for it to be a row. That, or one of the participants was incompetent enough she felt sorry for them?

His hypotheses were cut short by another ear-shattering wail. Before Greed could recover, the front door burst open and a panicked-looking man came out carrying two empty buckets. The man zeroed on him, giving him a quasi-deranged smile.

“Are you one of our neighbours?” The man asked, not waiting for an answer before grabbing Greed’s arm and dragging him with him. “Could you please help me carry some fresh water? My wife is delivering and we weren’t expecting it today.”

The man shoved one of the buckets into his arms, and Greed was too stunned to try to push him off, so he ended dazedly letting himself be manhandled to a water well. _What the hell_?

“Delivering _what_?” He managed to ask, as he filled the bucket. He wasn’t even sure why he even _was_ filling the fucking thing. Or why he hadn’t left yet.

The man had the audacity to look at him like _Greed_ was the insane one there.

“The baby!” He exclaimed, grabbing him by the arm again, this time back towards the house. Greed let himself be dragged around again, trying to remember where the hell did human babies get delivered from.

He got his answer once they made it back inside the house to the tune of screaming. _Gross_. The baby was…half-way in the land of the living when the man took the bucket from him and ushered him back outside. That was not a delivery, that was an amputation. Or a extraction. Either way, _the fuck_.

Greed wasn’t sure why he stuck around after that. He supposed he was curious, he had never paid much attention to the logistics of creating new humans, and this was as good an opportunity to learn as any. He rested against the outer wall of the house, right next to the bedroom window where the gross spectacle was going on. He wasn’t looking, he got a glimpse and it was enough to last him all his unending life thank you very much, but he supposed he wanted to see the end of it.

The want was doing odd jumps on the back of his throat. Greed simply did not have the brainpower to deal with that.

Finally, the annoying shrieking died down to be replaced by a frail but sonorous wailing. Shortly thereafter, the woman from before exclaimed “It’s a girl!” and the atmosphere was suddenly overwhelmed with so much relief and happiness that Greed had to take a step back in shock. He risked a glimpse through the window, and saw the older woman who had been helping the mother bundle the baby into a towel.

Greed was trying to convince himself to _leave_ already, as his curiosity had been satisfied, but there was an odd pull deep within his chest that had him frozen in place. The mother looked completely exhausted, her face pale and her eyes cloudy. However, she was smiling. Greed couldn’t fathom why.

The punishment for his peeping came soon after, when bucket man made eye contact with him through the glass and instead of getting angry, he smiled delightedly. The man poked his head through the window and motioned him closer.

“I’m sorry for kidnapping you back then, but thanks for the help!” The human told him, taking his hand and shaking it. Greed would tell him about personal space if it weren’t obvious he would have to explain the concept from scratch.

“No worries,” was what came out of his mouth eventually.

“Do you want to meet her?”

He was about to say _no way_ but the need flowing thorough him twisted uncomfortably in his throat. What was it with it today? He certainly didn’t want a _baby_ …

Did he?

Nah, he didn’t.

Just to confirm he wanted nothing to do with this at all, he said that he did want to see the baby, and mister No Boundaries dragged him – yet again, dude, Greed could walk just fine – back inside.

There were quite a lot of people inside. Seemed like the family had made the extraction a town event. They hadn’t been inside the room when the lady was getting the thing out, but they were all there now.

The woman in question still looked like shit, but she now had the baby in her arms. Her eyes were…Greed couldn’t find the word to describe it, but he could feel the way the wanting in his chest expanded painfully at the sight of it. The baby fussed, seemingly half-asleep and the woman’s face twisted into a tired, pleased grin. Her eyes _gleamed_.

Greed left the room in a hurry, putting a good two blocks between himself and the damned sight. His ears were ringing, the want pulsing and nauseating and Greed just didn’t know what it _wanted._ He collapsed into a nearby alleyway, holding his head between his hands.

He tried to think through the phantom aches of desire bulldozing his senses. What happened there that made the pull act so strongly? What was it about the baby?

No, really, what _was it_ about the baby? Why had the woman looked like that at the sight of it? It was the same look from the lovers on the street, and a parent looking at a child. Sure, the situation was technically the former, but the woman had had it for two seconds! Surely she couldn’t like it so damn much already. She had just made that life, she didn’t even know it yet.

_Life_ …

Maybe that was it. The woman was so entailed by the tiny body because first, she had made it, and second, it was alive. He had heard before that some people saw their children as an extension of their lives. By having a kid, they extended their mark in the world.

He smiled through the ringing and pulsing. Oh yes, he liked the sound of that.

All living things in creation could make life. Animals, humans, even fucking plants could. Homunculi couldn’t. His foggy brain took the idea and ran with it: What if that was what would finally quench his metaphorical thirst once and for all? If he could find a way to extend his lifespan without the need to create a new life…

Immortality, the humans called it. He would get immortality.

(The piercing pull just got louder)

* * *

The furthest he got into his quest for immortality and Finally Getting the Want to Shut Up was completely accidental, and somehow didn’t have a lot to do with immortality in the first place.

He had been walking through Amestris, which wasn’t ideal as the place was teeming with his dearest siblings, but he had some business to attend. He is going to be in an out quickly, he will ignore his family all the way and hopefully they will do the same.

He is walking near one of the labs that he was pretty sure were fronts for Daddy Dearest’s God wannabe experiments when he hears a commotion.

“Come back here you freak!”

Greed is immediately interested, as things that human qualified as “freaks” tended to be the coolest things they ever produced. He peaks through the alleyway from where the ruckus was coming from. At the end of it, there were three military officials, clearly drunk off their asses, harassing a…

Greed would give it to them, that was a freak alright.

The human – and Greed is giving out the word very generously here – was greyly pale, with dark spots all over his body. He was short with big eyes looking terrified at his pursuers all the way from the top of the wall he was currently _sticking to_. He was dressed in a ragged coat that couldn’t dissimulate the obvious tail that seemed to be bigger than the thing was.

Greed decides right there and then that whatever the fuck that is, he wants one. By the way is heartbeat of need picks up, the want agrees.

“Get down here monster!” One of the drunken official shouts, shooting at the tailed human. The thing dodges _fast._ That was definitely lizard speed.

He has decided long ago that humans have shit taste. They have the possibility to make their wildest ideas come through and yet they restrict themselves to their own chaining concepts of “good taste” and “normality”. The idiot officials were threating the lizard human, now perched on a nearby nightlight, like dirt on their shoes when it was obvious that between the four of them, the one that could _climb walls_ was the better designed one. Greed wanted to climb walls; who didn’t want to climb walls? He bets the officers are just jealous _they_ can’t climb walls.

“Alright, alright!” He says, catching everyone’s attention. They are going to shoot the damn thing at this rate, and he wants it. “Time to stop playing with someone else’s toys.”

Four pair of eyes zero in on him, three confused and angry and one looking at him with so much hope in his expression it makes something shift in his chest and not in a bad way. He ignores the weird feeling in favour of getting the idiots out of the way of him and his new thing.

“And who the fuck are you huh?” The apparent leader of the gang asks, a blond with an hairdo that was clearly meant for someone a decade younger.

“None of your business!” The smallest adds, but he looks apprehensive and skittish. It reminds Greed of a rat.

“What kind of jackass uses sunglasses at night?” That was the third one, a redhead with a bored expression.

“They make me look cool as hell.” Greed gloats, moving his face to showcase his best angle.

“They make you look like an idiot.” Redhead argues, and yeah this one wants to die, doesn’t he?

“Why is he even posing for? The streetlight isn’t even anywhere near him.” Asks the rat in a loud whisper.

“Alright, that’s enough,” Bad Haircut in Charge demands, pointing his gun at him. Greed was inclined to agree. Any longer and the lizard human will run away. By the way he was shacking in the lamppost, it would be sooner than later.

“You want to know who I am?” He asks in a menacing voice, making sure to get in line of the damn light this time. “I am the _king_ of the freaks.”

He finishes his sentence by shifting back to his reinforced carbon form, effectively scaring the three men shitless. Bad hairdo tries to shoot him, but they quickly book it once the bullets bounced uselessly against his chest. He is so caught up in laughing at the spineless idiots that the squeaky “T-Thank you!” from up above makes him jump.

Holy shit it _talks_.

Greed had not counted on it being capable of talking. That made the ownership thing kinda awkward. However, there were other ways to own a human (or humanoid) and this one now owed him his very life.

“Do not thank me yet, weird one!” he tells the thing, which apparently isn’t enough of an idiot to get down immediately. “You owe me!”

The thing blanches in fear, gripping the streetlight harder.

“Please! Don’t hurt me! I don’t want to go back there, I will do anything!” The thing begs.

“Go back where?”

If possible, the lizard man starts shacking even more: “To the lab!”

He remembers faintly about some of Dad’s experiment. It appeared this was one of the chimeras they had been playing around with. Theoretically, he should give it back, but fuck Father and fuck the lab. Finders’ keepers and all that.

“I am not taking you back to the lab. I found you, I saved you so now you owe me.”

“What should I do then, sir…what is your name sir?”

“The name’s Greed.” He says, still thinking about the first question. What should the chimera do indeed.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Bido!”

“I didn’t ask.”

He thought hard about this new situation. He had never had something alive before. Maybe he could get it to do stuff for him? Wait, what were those people that some mafia bosses had called? …oh right!

“You,” Greed declared, pointing at Bido. “are going to be my lackey!”

Bido looks at him suspiciously. “If I am your lackey…I don’t have to go back to the lab?”

“Of course not, what’s the use of a lackey who’s not with me to order around?”

Bido smiles, looking relieved, “Sure thing, Mr. Greed sir! Bido can be the best lackey ever!”

“Great! As your first command, get down here.”

Bido does so, and Greed notes with glee that the thing is as fast and agile as it looked. His glee is diminished however, when he clings to his coat, looking at him like an excited puppy.

“Thank you soooo much!”

There’s definitely something fishy going on with the want now, as it seems to be doing painless summersaults right above his chest. He pushes Bido off, trying to shoo the weird and unwelcome feeling.

“First of all, we will get you some new clothes. You _stink_.”

Despite his harsh words, Bido _beams_ at him, like he’s seen little kids do when their friends invite them to a hang-out. And Greed…

He…

For the tiniest moment, something deep within him fills up. The unfamiliar and overwhelming glimpse of _satisfaction_ momentarily blurs his thoughts, making him dizzy.

That was…

“Uh.” He mutters, because _uh_.

He takes a deep breath. He doesn’t want to double check, afraid the phantom fullness would disappear like an elusive oasis in his retina. He _does_ check, because he’s not a pussy, and is…pleasantly surprised to see it is still there.

It’s not as overpowering as it was seconds ago, but he can still feel it, like a little patchwork over his black hole of need. That’s…something.

“Mr. Greed?” There’s an edge on the chimera’s voice that tells him his little space out session has lasted way too long.

Greed wastes another second to answer, still stuck on the fulfilment part. He had never _not wanted_ before. Not even for a second. Every acquisition has always left him with the harsh bite of more. What is different this time?

“I’m fine.” He’s almost sure of it too. Probably. “Let’s get moving, lackey.”

“Yessir!” Bido’s voice is still so unbelievably happy. The little patchwork burns harder.

It is not a bad feeling.

Greed resolves to find out how to make more of these patchworks. He supposes it has something to do with obtaining this weird chimera. He grins. Seems he will need more lackeys.

(A few weeks into this new acquisition, Bido shyly tells him that if he is still in the market for more lackeys, there were a few guys still trapped in the lab that the lizard would like to save.

One lab breakout later, and Greed has a whole gang. The need, for the first time in forever, is not as hungry anymore)

* * *

Time passes. Some stuff happens, stuff like a new body, and he forgets his meeting with Bido and the rest of the chimeras. He forgets about the little ban-aid over his pulsating need too.

He doesn’t remember it until it’s suddenly ripped off his chest.

Greed falls on his knees, a weird sort of pain making his insides twist sporadically, and he has no clue of _what the fuck just happened_. He just feels like someone ripped a limb, but a limb inside him? What?

He looks at the chimera, his frozen face stuck in an expression of pure shock with the barest hint of betrayal, desperately scanning for answers. It had said it knew him, the old him, but that didn’t mean shit now that he had a new model, so why was it affecting him?

(It had said they were _friends_ )

Something in his brain unlocks, and memories come flowing in like a freight train attempting to knock him out. He swaggers, his body a shaking canopy of lost memories and dizzy regret.

His gang. The idiot prince. Dying. _His gang._

They’re dead. He thinks, frantically. They’re deadedadeadead.

The brat who lent him his body is speaking to him, tone harsh and accusative, but he can’t make out the words. The ringing in his ears is too loud.

He hears someone scream. Something inside is ripped and bleeding. He is alone, so the screaming must have been him.

(He’s _alone_ and the need _aches_ )

* * *

He hates to admit it, but the annoying prince is not bad.

Switching the control of his body back and forth with the kid has proven to be extremely useful, as the prince is good with a sword and well, he could admit he’s more used to this body than Greed is. Not that he needs to _tell_ the brat that.

“You do know I can hear your thoughts, right?” The brat in question teases, and even though Greed can’t see the smirk from the front seat of the body, he knows it’s there.

“Shut up, you can’t. Only when I let you.”

“Then why did you _let_ me just now?” Greed was going to erase that damn hypothetical grin off his face.

“Maybe I slipped because I’m _tired_ because your masked guard dogs are still hot on my tail!”

“And I _told_ you if you just let me talk to them, they would help us!”

“What they would do is dissect this body trying to snatch me out of it, no way.”

“They would not, they’re loyal to me.”

Greed huffs, tuning him out – because he can do that, he was just distracted – and tries to focus on losing the insufferable bodyguards’ trail. He can’t believe someone would go so far for this brat. Loyalty in general was always a weird concept to Greed. He understands it, in fact he will call himself loyal to his avarice, but he never got why some humans or his siblings were loyal to _others_. What could you gain from a relationship like that?

“You really are clueless huh.” Ling comments and _fuck where did the mental block go_.

“If you’re gonna be noisy, you could at least answer the question. What do those two gain from following you?”

“They believe I can fix the Xing Empire.” He answers simply.

“It can’t be only that.”

A pause. “Well, it certainly is not.”

He asks the kid what the hell does he mean with that, but he just sighs. Greed presses, because he’s growing quite tired of Ling never shutting up except when it would be useful.

“Look, I’m not going to explain emotions to someone who clearly is just starting to figure them out. Want me to be your therapist? _Let me talk to them_.”

He answers that with a mental middle finger, and puts all of his concentration into blocking him out. A familiar scratching in his chest makes him almost groan aloud. What does it want now?

The need has been worse, even since he killed the chimera ( _ ~~Bido~~ )_ it had burned in his chest and no matter what he got to calm it, it just ignited further. The prince’s growing presence seemed to have calmed it down to manageable levels, but just barely.

Thinking about the kid’s bodyguards made his insides blaze with need. Maybe _he_ should get some bodyguards. After all, he had calmed it before when he had his-

He stops walking, trying to breathe through waves of desperation. The want does not like it when he thinks about his old gang.

He wonders where he can get more chimera bodyguards. Maybe Wrath has some spare lab he could break into…

(From inside his new body, Ling face palms.)

* * *

One of the bodyguards, the old one, dies when they go against Wrath. The brat’s grief is crushing and it is infecting his whole brain. The kid’s memories overlap with his own, making his conscious a confusing mess of flashing images and pure agony.

So that’s what was going on between the brat and the guard dogs. It seems that for humans, it always comes down to love.

He wonders once again, what was the point of these kinds of feelings. Friendship and Love only ever seemed to get humans hurt. As he drowns in Ling’s despair, he decides he can’t imagine wanting something that could make him like this.

(The want burns though his veins so hard, it makes him almost dizzy.)

* * *

Between leading the pipsqueak and the two chimeras in his plan to take down Father and his siblings once and for all, sharing his body with the kid, and the constant fights the blonde anger bag constantly dragged them into, he almost misses the way the need inside his chest hadn’t pulsed in weeks.

He supposes it has to do with his change in goals, he _wants_ whatever power creep Father is working so hard to get.

* * *

He gets it, eventually.

_“This is what you desperately wanted, wasn’t it_.”

When father puts his arm through his stomach and tries to drag him out, and he realizes that if he keeps fighting like this he is going to die and _Ling_ will die with him, he realizes he doesn’t want that. Somewhere along the line, he started wanting the kid to succeed and go back to his country with immortality and get the throne. At first he thought it was just as an extension of his body, if the brat got all those things Greed would get them by association, but he was wrong.

He simply wants it, because the brat would be happy.

The need is screaming inside of him, but he lets it fuel him this time around: He wants Ling to live, and he wants the pipsqueak to get his brother and his limbs and punch father in the face on the way there. He wants this ridiculous plan to succeed. He wants humanity to win.

He wants his… _friends_ to win.

But Ling is _not fucking letting go_ and at this rate they will meet each other in hell. The want in his chest can’t help but delight in the way he looks so desperate as he holds on though.

“It’s not being king of the world, but I could make do with being emperor of Xing. Let’s fight him together, partner!” He lies for the first time, and punches the kid off him once he lowers his guard for a second.

He tells him Lan Fan still has another philosopher stone, hoping it will get him to let go for real and he can’t help but be relieved when Ling doesn’t even flinch at the admission.

As he uses all the power he has left to debilitate Father, he can hear Ling and Ed desperately calling for him and…

The need _stops_.

He would smile if the part of him that had a mouth hadn’t dissolved into mist already. He counts it as the ultimate win, he got to be satisfied even if it’s going to be short-lived.

He savours the moment, and looks sadly at his friends anguished faces.

_Thank you_.

**Author's Note:**

> I was once again convinced to post a birthday fic. Dear friend, know I love you enough to go absolutely _out_ of my fandom comfort zone.


End file.
